a rakefile for generating pdf from latex

Rakefile

# Rakefile for building tex file

require "rake/clean"
require 'yaml'

# variables
BASE = "thesis"
TYPE = ".tex"
OUT = ".pdf"
TEXFILE = FileList[BASE+TYPE]
OUTFILE = BASE+OUT
DVIFILE = BASE+".dvi"
IMAGES = FileList["**/*.eps"]
BIBTEXCMD = "/usr/texbin/bibtex"
LATEXCMD = "/usr/texbin/pdflatex"
PSCMD = "/usr/local/bin/ps2pdf"
DVICMD = "/usr/texbin/dvipdfmx"
TEMP =
PDF = FileList["**/*.pdf"]
ABBR = "include/abbreviations.tex"
ABBR_YML = "include/abbreviations.yml"

task :default => [OUTFILE]

desc "compile literature with bibtex"
task :bibtex do
  latex
  sh %{#{BIBTEXCMD} "#{BASE}"}
end

desc "rules for the DVI file"
file DVIFILE => [ABBR, :bibtex] do
  latex
end

desc "show all todos for tex files"
task :todo do
  sh "/usr/local/bin/ack --tex -r TODO"
end

desc "create PDF from DVI"
file OUTFILE => DVIFILE do
  sh "#{DVICMD} #{BASE}.dvi"
end

desc "convert eps to pdf"
task :epsconvert do
  IMAGES.each do |i|
    dir = File.dirname(i)
    file = File.basename(i, ".eps")
    pdffile = dir+"/"+file+".pdf"
    pdffile.gsub!(/ /, '\\\\ ')
    i.gsub!(/ /, '\\\\ ')
    if not File.exists?(pdffile)
      sh %{#{PSCMD} -dEPSCrop #{i} #{pdffile}}
    end
  end
end

desc "sort abbreviations.yml and pipe it into abbreviations.tex"
file ABBR => ABBR_YML do |f|
  dict = File.open(ABBR_YML) {|yf| YAML::load(yf)}
  file = File.open(f.name, 'w')
  file.puts "\\begin{tabular}{ll}"
  dict.sort.each do |k,v|
    file.puts "#{k} & #{v} \\\\"
  end
  file.puts "\\end{tabular}"
end

CLEAN.include(FileList["*.aux", "*.bbl", "*.blg", "*.idx", "*.log",
                       "*.out", "*.toc", "*.dvi", "*.lot", "*.nlo"])
CLOBBER.include(FileList["*.aux", "*.bbl", "*.blg", "*.idx", "*.log",
                         "*.out", "*.toc", "*.dvi", "*.lot", "*.nlo"],
                         PDF, OUTFILE)

# method to compile latex, which can be
# run more than once per rake run
def latex
    2.times do
        sh %{#{LATEXCMD} "#{TEXFILE.to_s}"}
    end
end